Steamboat briefs for Dec. 16

Three motor accidents occur during weekend

A trio of motor vehicle accidents - including one involving a Colorado State Patrol trooper - resulted in the shutting down of Routt County Road 129 for about an hour Friday night, State Patrol Sgt. Scott Elliott said Monday.

Law enforcement officers were called to an accident near mile marker 9 on C.R. 129 at 8:51 p.m. Monday for a vehicle that had rolled onto its side. An ambulance was called to the accident, but Routt County Sheriff's Office deputies canceled the ambulance page when the vehicle's driver refused to be transported to Yampa Valley Medical Center for minor injuries.

Officers then responded to a one-vehicle, noninjury accident near the scene of the first at 8:59 p.m.

At about 9:45 p.m., a Colorado State Patrol vehicle driven by a trooper responding to the accidents slid off the road and into an embankment, Elliott said. The trooper had stopped the car, put on the parking brake and left the vehicle before it slid off the road.

"If a car in park will slide down over the roadway and off the embankment, the road is not safe to travel for the rest of traffic," Elliott said.

The trooper was not injured, and the car was not damaged, Elliott said.

Troopers closed C.R. 129 "because it was a complete sheet of ice," Elliott said. It reopened about an hour later.

Elliott reminded drivers to slow down and drive below the speed limit when icy and snowy conditions exist.

"Even when it's snow-packed and sanded by CDOT, it's still extremely slippery," he said.